Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Category: Legends

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds / Devil / Folklore / Giants / Legends

The Six Hills, Stevenage

The six hills which occupy prominence in the town are tumuli or Round Barrows dating from the Bronze Age. According to legend the hills are spade fulls of earth taken from Whomerly wood and thrown at the town by a giant (or the Devil) intent on destruction. His last shot went well off mark and knocked the steeple off Gravely Church two miles away.

Ancient Sites / Devil / Earth Works / Legends

The Devil’s Dyke

Two giant earthworks named the Devil’s Dyke and the Slad, enclose and area of around 40 hectares to the South of St Albans. The area was excavated in 1932 by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, and the ditch was found to have had an original depth of nearly thirteen metres making it a huge undertaking.

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity / Fairies / Folklore / Legends / Mermaids / Wells

St Ethelbert’s Holy Well

Around 794AD, King Offa of Mercia demanded the head of the Christian King Ethelbert of East Anglia whilst he was making arrangements to marry Offa’s daughter. Not far from the location of Marden Church the young king was assassinated and his body hidden. After rumours of Ethelbert’s ghost being seen in the marden area, Offa asked the Pope for absolution.

Giants / Legends

Alderman Hill and Alphin Pike

In legend the rolling boulder-strewn hills of Alphin Pike and Alderman Hill were the abodes of the giants Alphin and Alderman, after whom the peaks were named. Alphin and Alderman were at first on friendly terms, until they both became enamoured with a beautiful water nymph called Rimmon, who lived in the valley below them in the bubbling waters of Chew Brook.

Apparitions / Buried Treasure / Hauntings / Legends

Shaftesbury Abbey

Shaftesbury abbey was a Benedictine nunnery that was founded by Alfred the Great around AD888, King Alfred’s daughter was also the first Abbess of Shaftesbury.

Ancient Sites / Earth Works / King Arthur / Legends

Badbury Rings

This concentric ring hillfort dates from the Iron Age, and according to archaeologists was built to stem an invasion from the Northeast of the country.

Ancient Sites / Chalk Hill Figures / Featured Sites / Folklore / Giants / Legends

The Cerne Abbas Giant

The Cerne Abbas Giant or the ‘Rude Man’ is one of the largest hillfigures in Britain, he (the figure’s gender is beyond doubt) is one of two representations of the human form, the other being the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex. The giant, carved in solid lines from the chalk bedrock measures in at 180 feet high, and carries a huge knobbled club, which measures 120 feet in length.